This is just strange all the way around and sad as the doctor, a pediatrician was writing prescriptions in exchange for cash and offered meth and marijuana to minors. It is assumed the 29 adults who received prescriptions were addicted to some type of drug or substance. He also had ecstasy and sold marijuana from his home, which the latter seems to be the least of his worries compared to the rest. He was the medical director of the Valley Health Plan that handles insurance so I wonder if any of those records could be included in the case as far as looking for payments and money? One wonders if the doctor was maybe on meth if he was writing prescriptions in exchange for it, or was he supplying it for others? They also found weapons in his home, so sounds like it may have been going on for a while. BD

A top Santa Clara County health plan administrator has been charged with illegally trading prescription drugs for cash and methamphetamine, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said today. According to prosecutors, 61-year-old Dr. Marvin Bonham was a pediatrician with a purely administrative job, but allegedly wrote prescriptions for commonly abused drugs like Oxycontin to 29 adults in less than two years and gave marijuana to minors and offered them methamphetamine. Bonham has been charged with 18 felonies, include possession of methamphetamine for sale, prescribing without legitimate purpose, prescribing to addicts, possession of psilocybin mushrooms, possession of ecstasy and possession of marijuana for sale, the district attorney’s office said.

Until his arrest on Oct. 4, Bonham served as medical director of the Valley Health Plan, the branch of the county hospital system that handles medical insurance, according to prosecutors. “The Hippocratic oath says, first, do no harm. He had the authority and the power because he was being trusted — he violated that trust,” said Narcotic Unit Supervising Deputy District Attorney James Sibley. More than half of the people Bonham wrote prescriptions for had criminal histories and more than a third had been arrested for using or selling drugs before, the district attorney’s office said. Among those Bonham wrote prescriptions for was his roommate, 32-year-old James Schneider, Sibley said.

Dark Arts of Mathemical Deception

Professor Charlie Siefe of NYU, a mathematician debunks clinical trials, and few other items to where data is spun and fools you, every day example, hear about the perfect butt algorithm and more. These are probably some things you have never thought about but again after listening to what he has to say, it’s time to think about being skeptical. Here’s a radio show that also talks about the same topics.

This video digs in a bit further with how fictitious business models are used by banks and companies do this too. The models are so complex that CEOs don’t even understand them. “Quants, The Alchemists of Wall Street will take you through how “math models” work at banks and financial institutions in a way that even the layman can understand. More videos like over at theAlgo Duping/Killer Algorithm Page. Bank of America will also tell you“IT’ is a business” how they make money.

Weapons of Math Destruction

This is a lecture where Kathy O’Neill, a former Quant who worked for a Hedge Fund (Weapons of Math Destruction) on Wall Street will tell you what is done with your retirement money and more. The banks and companies use technology to take advantage because they can. “Of course we are going to take advantage because our tools are our brains…if they could figure out a way to take advantage of pension funds they would, a good interview with explaining smart money and dumb money.

Algorithms Shape The World

This is a very good presentation done a TED Conference and really was the one that got everyone started thinking about algorithms and today it’s talked about a lot. As he says “if you’re an algorithm, life is looking pretty good, but can’t say the same for humans”. What is a black box? Nobody has any control over the flash crash. We have moved forward a bit but still we are writing the unreadable and lost the sense of some of what is happening. Nice plug for Nanex here with research.